Gah, I really hate having my photograph taken, which is just one of the reasons I prefer to be behind the lens. But sometimes I just can't avoid it, and I've put some of the results up here to warn others against such foolishness.

Despite this long-standing disclaimer, someone's girlf[r]iend said that having a bunch of pictures of myself as the first link on the photographs page is vain. To which I reply, um, it's a personal website: self promotion is kind of the point. If I didn't put anything about me on the site, there's going to be even less content than there is now!

If I look like I'd just been dragged through a hedge backwards, it's because I had:
after running around the garden for a while the little bugger was trying to climb the ivy to get out, but got it wrapped around its throat.

Making sure that the world is safe from dodgy backup CDs: these babies were microwaved and then chopped into little bits. With my hand. I worked my way up to five CDs at a time until I ran out of CDs. But fear not, I've got some more blank CDs on order, if there's any coastering issues on the new batch I'll keep you informed ;)

More mirror tricks (see below). Instead of taking a picture of me in the mirror, I put the camera on the top of my computer monitor for stability and used the mirror to see the LCD viewfinder at the back. This meant that compared with pointing the camera at the mirror and shooting from the hip so I don't obscure my own face, I got a much better view of what was going on and could take closer shots. More fool you for looking! :)

The last four were just regular remote control shots. If I'd have used the mirror trick I would have noticed all the "dagger through the head" shots I had to get rid of.

Ooh, very arty and pretentious... well, not really, at least that wasn't the intention. I hate flash photography as the flash seems so harsh, but sometimes it's the only way of getting the shot. So I decided to mess around trying out ways of difusing and deflecting the flash to soften it. The plan here was to bounce the light off the ceiling, which worked fine on shots of the furniture, but taking pics of myself in the mirror I realised that most of the light splashes back and gives this Hallowe'en look.

This pic was ripped from a photo from the Blues on the Farm 2001, which is a local festival that plays lots of live music and serves lots of beer. I think my right arm is snaking out to hold Foggy up. /me was only drinking coffee - Foggy wasn't.

Harder to hide the remote control in this pic.
I think I ended up bouncing it off the back wall, hence the hand bent behind my back.
This was before I realised there's a short delay during which you can fling the remote away.

This pic was presumed lost due to a hard drive failure, but turned up on one of my many backup discs (an ancient Zip disc). I commonly referred to this pic as my "work you bastard or I'm taking a hammer to you" shot as this was the first digital camera I'd played with, but as I looked so much younger then this title now seems a little absurd. Aw, doesn't he look cute in his leather jacket and his short hair? Bless.

The "Look Mum, I'm in Paris!" shot just to prove I've been. Of course the next time I left the country was to go to Egypt in 2001, when I had to get a new 10 year passport I originally got for going to see relatives in Germany, so I only average an oversees trip about once every five years.

This shot always reminds me of the opening of Reservoir Dogs, only geekier.

I don't think Liz (in the background) was speaking to us after we'd made her travel in the boot of the car in a drunken early-morning return from viewing the Eiffel Tower.
Look, there wasn't enough seats and she was the smallest, okay?

Seeing as I'd been living out of a suitcase in someone's tiny back bedroom for the past year, something roomy was a definite step up, even if these pictures show pretty much every stick of furniture I owned.